Aim High: find your Mission in Life

[May 14, 2022]  One of the certainties in life is that you don’t get something if you don’t aim at it, like the Olympic archer who hits the bulls-eye only when aiming correctly.  Find your mission in life.

Surprisingly, many folks are reluctant to make their goals clear; they do not have to talk about failure by doing so.  They will never know, nor want to know, about their failures, which is okay for them because they would rather deny failure than face it bravely.

“Our life is a story with a goal and a purpose and a beginning.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson

Those who want to have meaning in their lives should look to make their goals sharp and clear.  And, they will aim high for that which is worthy and challenging to achieve.  Yes, we can have several aims.  One high aim could simply be to become a good person.  Of course, there is more detail to this aim.  Perhaps we want to reduce our distrust of others, restrain our evil thoughts, and decrease suffering, a commendable task.  This is where we could do the most good for our family, friends, and community.  Once we prove ourselves capable of being this good, we can help others achieve good in their lives.

Then, daily, as we keep this proper goal in our sights, we must associate our everyday efforts toward this goal.  In pursuit of a high goal, our day-to-day acts give our lives true meaning.  That is the dignity of being human; doing so ensures we stay on the right path.  We can judge our actions by connecting our micro-goals to our honorable aim.  The goal helps us develop guideposts along the way.  Creating a schedule allows you to design the days you want, balancing reward and obligation.

Who do you want to be?  Having a reasonable, noble aim is one of those secrets of success.  Life has many pitfalls, and identifying the direction you want to go at least three to five years down the line is an early step in the right direction.  This means caring for yourself at the most basic level.

Young folks are inexperienced, not disciplined, cannot clearly see the world, are quick to adopt oversimplified, popular ideologies that don’t work.  They don’t take responsibility for themselves, their behavior, their family, and are not looking at how they could contribute to their community.  And they don’t understand the fact that they don’t know anything.  We can know that we are doing things in our lives that we know are wrong or are bad for us and others, and we can stop and fix them if we put our mind to it.

Improve your character.  Be the adult in the room.  Adopt discipline; stop doing those things you know you should not be doing, do those you know you should do and stop chasing happiness.  Regardless of how or what a person does, they must first deal with those things they can fix.  After that, the world is open.

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Please read my new book, “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).

Author: Douglas R. Satterfield

Hello. I provide one article every day. My writings are influenced by great thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Jung, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Jean Piaget, Erich Neumann, and Jordan Peterson, whose insight and brilliance have gotten millions worldwide to think about improving ourselves. Thank you for reading my blog.

27 thoughts on “Aim High: find your Mission in Life

  1. Wild Bill

    Be the adult in the room. Well, Gen. Satterfield, we know that there are many whackos out there who have zero clue about truth and responsibility.

    Reply
  2. 76 Wife

    At the end of the day, if you have a choice, think big. If you have a choice, aim high, and then ask yourself, “What do I need to do to do that, and what are the habits, or what’s the one habit I need to develop such that by doing it, everything else is easy or unnecessary,” and go get that habit. But if you don’t think big, what’s your choice? Right?

    Reply
    1. Rev. Michael Cain

      Most people, by default, because they don’t think big, they don’t aim high, they end up developing very average or below average habits. They are underdevelop.

      Reply
  3. Bernie

    Aim High! Great slogan. Although I think the US Air Force has this motto already. Maybe they changed it but it’s a great slogan. For your life, aim high. Find your mission in life. Yep, so many folks have absolutely no idea how to do this because they have their nose in their phone all day long.

    Reply
  4. Rides Alone

    Be a mentor to a young person and remember that while they should be looking for a mentor most don’t think it’s necessary. You can communicate ideas like what this blog is great at getting the word out on. Thanks.

    Reply
  5. Tom Bushmaster

    Excellent article, one of the best I’ve read.

    Reply
  6. Jonnie the Bart

    Improve your character. Be the adult in the room. Adopt discipline; stop doing those things you know you should not be doing, do those you know you should do and stop chasing happiness. Regardless of how or what a person does, they must first deal with those things they can fix. After that, the world is open.
    BEST QUOTE EVER. Thank you Gen. Satterfield. 😊

    Reply
    1. Eagle Eye

      Yep, exactly why I keep coming back to this website.

      Reply
      1. Bryan Z. Lee

        Me too and I think just about everyone else that I read about in these leadership forums. Keep up the great work Gen. Satterfield.

        Reply
  7. Janna Faulkner

    What is your aim in life? Mine is to have a big family and have them all be loyal to one another and prepare them to go out into the world and succeed.

    Reply
  8. Jerome Smith

    I believe that it is incumbent upon each of us to help set the record straight whenever we bump up against obvious lies in public. Don’t just shrug them off. While that is no easy task, especially with a fake media narrative that is going around, we should take the noble aim of not tolerating it. Step into the breach and say, STOP, you are lying to us, we know it, and now you know we know it.

    Reply
    1. Nick Lighthouse

      Yep, take back the country from the idiots and those supporting the idiots. Should be easy but we are competing with a very insidious ideology that requires zero thinking and puts you as superior to everyone just by adopting it. That’s hard to sell the idea of responsibility. Gen. Satterfield mentioned this a few days ago and he is right.

      Reply
    2. Ernest

      Got that right, jerome. Thanks to you, we can better see the focus we need. Oh, before I forget, finally my copy of Gen Satterfield’s book came in the mail from Amazon. Great book. Go get it, ‘Our Longest Year in Iraq.’ Best of the best.

      Reply
  9. Kerry 6

    If you put two college snowflakes in a room, what do you get? A simpleton without brains.

    Reply
  10. Pooch T.

    “Our life is a story with a goal and a purpose and a beginning.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson
    Great quote. thanks Gen. Satterfield. Dr. Peterson is truly a man of great insight.

    Reply
  11. Frontier Man

    Most folks just drift thru life without any aim other than to feel good and avoid pain.

    Reply
    1. Big Al

      Don’t be too surprised that this is the case. When there is no incentive to work hard, have an aim, and adopt responsibility to get there, people drift.

      Reply
      1. Andrew Dooley

        Especially young snowflakes (and older liberal women, but I repeat myself) believe it is their “duty” to protest all the time. Make a living? Heaven forbid, that is the job of the government to support them.

        Reply
        1. McStompie

          I’m surely not shocked. Every day I listen to the news about the terrible job the federal government is doing and how corrupt the large institutions are these days and I just hang my head low. How could supposedly smart people be so dumb and anti-American?

          Reply

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